How To Pimp A Blog Post

by Jayme Soulati on 01/30/2012 in Blogging 101

Last week I was late posting this because the dog ate my homework. Actually, it was stuck on my iPad, and I had to retype because I knew it was killer content. I posted at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday; always murder when hawking on Twitter because most are back in the throes of work.

What I quickly realized, as the post earned few comments or retweets, is the subject matter—highly specialized for professionals in public relations. To highlight, I wrote about GoPro, the media darling upstart wearable video camera company loved by extreme sports enthusiasts. My content was oriented to media relations for PR professionals interested in the elements they need for national media relations.

To promote this niche content pertaining to my profession, I had to pimp (aka push, promote, market) my post, and here’s how I did it:

>>Twitter. I scheduled about four tweets throughout the day, and invited a few close peeps to review. While they read for me and re-tweeted, comments were few. (As Erica Allison reminded me, don’t ever gauge the strength of a post on its comments, especially one oriented to a specialized topic.)

>>Triberr. I am a member of three tribes, and I’m always grateful when my tribe members retweet my blog posts. My post was tweeted by about 10 peeps to their networks. I’ve come to rely on the tribes to extend my content for me, and it all works together in correlation. Triberr is not a one-off social media strategy…it’s part and parcel of the overall strategy.

>>Buffer. I signed up for Buffer for the first time (after seeing many using it). Buffer scheduled my tweet at the most opportune time of the day when most are active in the stream. Very cool app…try this out.

>>Facebook Profile. My tweets to share the post were also sent over to Facebook at the same time. HootSuite is a wonderful platform with which to push content on multiple channels simultaneously.

>>Facebook Fan Page. I admit, my firm’s Facebook page is not frequently attended. I registered my blog with Networked Blogs which automatically posts my articles on my Facebook company page; however, this blog post warranted more of a push to folks in my community. I garnered a few likes from a few doing this.

>>Facebook Fan Page of GoPro. What did I have to lose? With 1.5 million likes in its community on Facebook, I shared my blog post on the GoPro wall. I congratulated them on all their publicity (in Inc. magazine) and shared my post. The result was a handful of likes on my post from the GoPro community.

>>Google+. As we’re all being required to engage more frequently with Google+ to influence search, you bet I shared my post there. I timed it for the morning before noon ET and then again in the afternoon. One was broadcast to all circles, and the other was in my PR and social media circles.

>>LinkedIn. I’ve not been engaging on LinkedIn as efficiently as I should. I posted my article on my own profile, and then I looked at the groups I was part of.  There were two public relations groups I knew would be interested in this content, so I posted. I also joined another group, Social Media Marketers, and shared there because the story of GoPro as a social brand is compelling to anyone playing in social media marketing.

>>Blog Comments. That day, as I didn’t need to manage my own community as much, I sought other blogs to read and place comments. Those blogs with a commenting system that showed my current blog post brought in new readers to my site. (This is one good reason why you comment on others’ blogs…to help other communities become acquainted with you and yours.)

RESULTS

Clicky. What an amazing analytics tool. I love this dashboard, and I’m fully aware Google Analytics has spiffed up its user friendliness. For someone as anti-analytics as I am, Clicky is a good starter dashboard to get me acclimated to reading stats.

In so doing, I saw that today, hits are up 214% on the GoPro blog post. When I went back seven days to see traffic, I noticed that every single tactic I made above garnered hits to the post. People were stopping in the day of the post, the day after and through the weekend. Clicky showed me how long people stayed, what blog post they arrived at, and whether they opened on a link.

As I said, I’m terrible peeking under the covers to see what the back end is doing on my blog. When I do, I’m always amazed at the extent of data available to help drive my content choices. While I’m never going to let analytics drive my writings, I realize now that having some knowledge at the core of this experience is never a bad thing.

What tales from the rear can you add to this mix? Heh.

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Blogging Under A Rock

by Jayme Soulati on 01/23/2012 in Blogging 101

I hope these key words in this headline don’t draw more readers…no one wants to blog under a rock, least of all moi. But, that’s what I’m accusing myself of absolute – I’ve been oblivious to anything outside of my immediate purview – client billable work, drafting content for my blog and a few guest posts, too, and that’s about it.

Here’s what prompted this post (and Steve Farnsworth and Paul Roberts thought I was kidding):

On Friday afternoon Steve tweeted me this awesome PR33 Blogs List from Paul Roberts’s blog. I thought, cool, I need to see this; thanks, Steve. Lo, I read the list to find myself included, much to my utter amazement. (And, thus the over-the-top thank you in comments that likely included my embarrassment at being late to the party.)

You see, I had not previously met Paul Roberts (that I knew of; unless we had drinks one night, Paul?), and here he had amassed an incredibly influential list of PR bloggers with insightful comments about each. (Again, thanks, Paul.)

AND, I DIDN’T KNOW IT!

So, I’ve been blogging under a rock, and that rock has bashed my head. Here’s what I’m guilty of and will attempt to change:

Problem: I use Triberr religiously to comment on bloggers in my tribes, and rarely do I hit others’ blogs to extend my reach. (I still like Triberr, and we’ll address that topic another day.)

Change-Up: Form another tribe with new folks and interact with their writings as much as original tribes.

*******

Problem: I go to familiar blogs with familiar communities who frequently come to my house and return the comments in familiar ways.

Change-Up: Get out of your comfort zone, Jayme! This becomes too routine; change it up, Girl!

*******

Problem: I realize the labor intensivity of extending blog reach, and while I sometimes comment on new blogs, it’s often isolated and not consistent.

Change-Up: Quit your whining and add “subscribe to comments” on all those blogs to keep you engaged.

*******

Problem: I go where I’m invited;  if you ask me to come, I’m there.

Change-Up: That’s not a problem; just stop waiting for an invite – insert yourself on more occasions.

********

Problem: I am failing at a consistent focus on Facebook community building, and now that Google has slammed all of us with forced participation, I’m worried how I’m going to manage enhancing all these channels.

Change-Up: Anyone got a solution to this one? I’m overwhelmed and want to go back under my rock.

********

Problem: I’m a Twitter girl to a fault; I keep it open all day long, attempt to work the stream and open new conversations on occasion, yet my faves column is filled with just that – faves! Twitter is my first love, my first channel (even before a blog), and I won’t let go of it, but maybe a little less here and more elsewhere?

Change-Up: Hah. Yes, create a new column called “Tweeps To Know” and head in their direction each day.

What problems and change-ups might you include to ensure you’re not blogging under a rock?

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Should Health Of Blog Community Align To ROI?

by Jayme Soulati on 01/11/2012 in Blogging 101, Social Media Strategy

I had a post all ready for today, and then @TheJackB spat all over my blog in comments. I could not let that slide, so this post is a compilation of his musings and mine. (You get co-authorship, TheJack, but just not in the byline…heh.)

The Sales Lion wrote a post yesterday about why community is not Holy Grail of blogging that I’m sure is creating a slew of comments, not the most of which is Gini Dietrich (although I’ve not been over to comment myself). Marcus said something to the effect that “Gini shocked the blogosphere admitting her business almost went bankrupt in 2011 in spite of her healthy blog, Spin Sucks, and its huge community with lengthier commentary.” (paraphrase)

IMHO (In my humble opinion), Arment Dietrich is a service firm; it delivers professional services and seeks clients to pay it to stay viable. Gini is the point person, face, poster child, CEO, founder, biz dev artist for her firm, and, oh, yeah, she’s chief cook and bottle writer for her highly popularly ranked and accoladed blog, Spin Sucks. Her new product, Spin Sucks Pro, for which peeps will subscribe to content and teachings via webinars and writings from around the ‘sphere, launches soon (after a one-year delay during which she had to fire a tech team and start from scratch). (Never write sentences like these two.)

When you’re running a successful digital marketing/PR shop with staff and expensive headquarters near the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, and you’re launching a brand new online moneymaker that fails and requires an immediate new investment in tech dollars and clients refuse to pay you for six months and the economy sucks (like Spin), then what’s so surprising about a firm nearly going belly up (in spite of a successful blog and community)?

This dilemma is one many successful entrepreneurs face –  how to clone oneself. We are the brand and brain power clients wants, hire and require. Using Gini Dietrich was a poor example to showcase that a profitable business has nothing to do with a healthy blogging community, and here’s why:

The target audience for Spin Sucks Pro are PR, marketing, social media peeps; a healthy community of such is required to ensure that Gini’s new $ venture succeeds. Can you imagine if she had attempted to launch Spin Sucks Pro without putting all the sweat and tears into building a healthy and growing community at its precursor? Right.

 

Here’s what THEJACKB had to say in comments here yesterday:

Yep, I commented on Marcus’s post. I was half awake at the time and uninterested in picking that post apart but I am not convinced that there is a relationship between Gini’s biz and comments.

Fact is that if you can demonstrate to brands that your blog reaches the eyeballs that they want to get in front of then you can make money blogging. It happens, and any one of us has the opportunity to make it happen. It might not make sense for some of us to pursue that path but the opportunity is there.

Let’s circle back to comments and community. You and I (Jack and Jayme) have talked about this, and I’ll repeat that I don’t see comments as being currency. They aren’t always useful social proof for whether a blog is popular, influential etc.

But that doesn’t apply across the board. Fact is that many of the people that speak at blog conferences get their positions as faculty because of their community and the comments. It is not impossible to get a gig without, but it is much easier when you have it.

Data mining is useful for bloggers. When you start to break down who your readers are you can learn all sorts of interesting things. During the past four days more than 4k uniques took a moment to read my post.

Two PR agencies and several brands were camped out on that post for extended periods of time. I don’t believe that they hung out there solely because they loved the writing. There is something more going on. My job is to figure out why. Maybe it is because they are looking for a writer or maybe it set off a keyword alert, but I’ll put money down that there is a money making opportunity tied into it.

Let’s circle back to the question of can you make money and approach it in a more direct manner. Let’s pretend that blogger XYZ has a product/service that they sell and that there is a valid value proposition tied into it.

Blogger XYZ needs to learn how to close. Ask for the order. Stop pussy footing around with “you might be interested or want” and ask for the sale. Remember Alec Baldwin in Glen Garry Glen Ross- “Always Be Closing.” (Excuse me while I reconnect the IV, the coffee drip just ran out.) (Indeed, Friend, you exhausted yourself with that spittle.)

What say you? (This is edited; thank you, Marcus.) Are business success and community related? Need you have a thriving blog community to also have a thriving business?

 

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Blogging Voice, Topics, Gifts

by Jayme Soulati on 01/09/2012 in Blogging 101

There are more than a million blogs and no way to hit them all; nor should you try. As a blogger, it is so hard to keep motivated and keep on publishing.

Someone paid me a huge compliment the other day about the quality of the content I publish, and it brings me back to these few things (probably alive and well in the echo chamber yet bears repeating):

Make Your Blog Yours

Your blog is what you make it. Only your commitment will make it successful. Doesn’t matter how many subscribers you have; peeps come because of what you say and the passion with which you write.

I have noticed many bloggers writing about life, depression, motherhood, struggle with medical issues or family woes who earn hundreds of comments and RTs. I try not to look at my less-than-10 RTs or 30 comments in comparison because it makes me wonder what’s wrong with what I’m saying and whether it has merit.

The answer is…NOTHING.

I write a specialty blog (not about life and emotion) about my profession in public relations, business, marketing, social media, and whatever strikes me in re current events and global affairs. The peeps who visit are similar or same. That’s a major point…what you write about breeds a community of likes. You will attract dog lovers if you write about dogs; you will find numbers guys if you promote analytics. More mommies will read your blog than non-parents when you write about kids every day.

Topics

When you write a blog that is a mash up of various and sundry topics, can you realistically expect your community to grow if they have no idea what they’ll get when they visit? Humans, by nature, appreciate few surprises. Goes the same with a blogging community…take a look at yours and see if you’ve been able to capture and keep 10 peeps in your community.  If I’m right, it could very well be that your content is too broad; test the waters for a few weeks and write about a theme or topic you appreciate. Watch your passion come alive and your community, too.

Motivation & Voice

Motivation and voice are huge factors to blogging success. Let no one tell you how frequently you have to blog; do what’s comfy for you. The very best tip I can offer is to strive to find your voice. I have two significant pieces on voice coming soon to Spin Sucks and Spin Sucks Pro. In one of them I say “I write like I talk and sprinkle f-bombs and flowers all over.” (That’s mostly in comments, but it’s very true.)

Do you write like you talk? I visited Jason Konopinski’s blog for the first time and was so shocked at his voice, I asked him in comments whether he always wrote in this style? My surprise came because his comments are laden with snark and cajoling; when I read his academic voice upon my first visit, I was blown away. Here’s the deal…it works for him! He’s the blogger, he owns his writing, style, voice, and ideas; so, too, do you. Have the confidence to put yourself out there because you can!

Blogging Gives Back

Blogging provides the opportunity to give back. I loved, loved the gifts I gave around Christmas inviting peeps to Share Your Blog Here and the subsequent follow-up post 50+Bloggers To Know Now. All over, peeps are saying in comments “I found your blog at Jayme’s 50 list.”

I received comments, thank you notes, tweets, a growing community, and more hidden gifts I can’t realize.  The best thing is I didn’t expect any of it!

Blogging provides these hidden rewards and the friendships you create and grow via the written word. So keep on, Friends, and if you have a question along the way, please ask. Every blogger’s journey is never smooth; when the twists and turns go straight, from there it’s a clean sail.

 

 

 

 

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Share Your Blog Here

by Jayme Soulati on 12/07/2011 in Blogging 101

This post is inspired by new commenter in the Soulati-’TUDE! community, Adam Clarke. Thanks, Adam!

Today marks the first in what’s hoped to be a continuing series for bloggers to share their blogs. My goal is to get 50 bloggers to give a blurb about their blog, its topic(s), and of course some link love. I will visit each of the bloggers who share and try to keep those regular visits happening. If your blog is from a vertical other than social media, marketing or PR, then ALL THE BETTER!

If I already know you and you’re a part of this community now, no matter! We all can be reminded what you’re writing about and try to get introduced to new peeps. If you’re at all like me, my time is limited and I rarely get a chance to visit others as I want and need to. Perhaps this will make it easier (is that selfish?).

So, I’ll begin:

1. Soulati-’TUDE! was born in March 2010 and it’s all about whatever I want, heh. But, it’s highly geared to public relations, social media, business and marketing. I’ll write the occasional off-topic post because I’m inspired to share a rant or three, but generally that’s what you’ll find here.

2. The SMB Collective was a trial run for a blogging community launched October 2010 with about six core contributors. Its topics are aimed at small business owners and anything is game for the writing. The blog still exists yet is highly dormant due to time constraints and the need for fresh writing. If anyone wants to help me push this blog back to new heights, I’m game and interested! Please…!

Now, it’s your turn…please share…and let’s get to 50 new blogs we all want to know about! Thanks for playing!

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Where Am I Blogging?

by Jayme Soulati on 10/26/2011 in Blogging 101

Funny title, eh? Indeed, where the heck am I blogging when this space has been empty all week?

Let me share, so you know I have been busy…just elsewhere:

On Law in New York

>> JD Match, is the first online law student recruiting service that allows law student member to rank law firm members and law firms to rank law students based on hiring criteria. Launched in April 2011, the service is run by Janet Stanton, CEO, and Bruce MacEwen, president (also of Adam Smith Esq. fame).

The guest post I wrote for them appeared Monday this week, called “Becoming A Lawyer Begins By Building A Solid Foundation.”

 

About Respect for Life in Romania

>> When I wrote my post a few weeks back about the Mexican drug cartel decapitating bloggers/journalists, my friend Stan Faryna reacted. He invited a repeat of this article on his blog in Romania to help spread the word about the disrespect for life.  Today, Stan kindly ran a repeat of the post, and there are several wonderful comments contributing to the discussion.

You may access it here, “Murder Will Not Silence Us.”

 

I welcome your visits on these two blogs and will engage with you there when you stop in. Thanks to those who already have!

 

 

 

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Brand Your Blog Or Name?

by Jayme Soulati on 07/05/2011 in Blogging 101, Branding

Read this headline from a recent Ad Age — The Big Winners at Cannes: Emerging Markets and Not Just for Bagging Lions.

Two words in that headline, Cannes and Lions, conjured two brands for me, John Falchetto and Marcus Sheridan. John writes Expat Life Coach and lives in France ( thus the Cannes assimilation), and Marcus writes The Sales Lion. Obviously, you can understand how I thought  of Marcus.

Neither of them know me well, but each of us appears in one another’s houses on occasion to contribute to comments. The fact is I lurk on their blogs more than I comment; their brands are significant in my opinion, and I glean from content other perspectives than mine.

Which leads me to my point. Are you a brand or is your blog?

In the case of the two gents I referenced above, both have branded the name of their blogs well. When Reading Cannes in the Ad Age headline, I thought of John first who lives in France and then segued to the name of his blog and his recent video interview with a PR professional in Costa Rica. All of this happened within seconds of course, but the thought patterns were definitely real and in sequence.

As for The Sales Lion, this blog shares content about family, a small business, customer stories, social media, and marketing. Powerful stuff with a community to boot. Marcus does a fab job with it. The fact that a word, lions, prompted my recollection of the name of Marcus’s blog is exactly what he wants that word to connote. As for Marcus’s business, he’s in the swimming pool business. I don’t get the correlation between lions and swimming pools, but it obviously works for him and his customers.

Here’s a great example to build on what I’m talking about…John tweets using his name and Marcus tweets using TheSalesLion (both Twitter links are above). My brand recall for John and Marcus is John’s name (not his blog title) and the title of Marcus’s blog rather than his name.

How have you branded your blog? Is it your name or a key-word rich title that draws people in to learn more?

 

 

 

 

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Is Power Blogging Really The Holy Grail?

by Jayme Soulati on 06/02/2011 in Blogging 101

What is a power blogger anyway? We can call “them” professional bloggers, A-listers, or just darn simply popular. I’m not a power blogger, but being the competitive spirit that I am, I’ve often wondered how I could get on that Ad Age Power 150 list –yikes; it’s a lofty goal.

For sure these peeps who are powerful bloggers in my circle devote skads of time to their blog; kinda like one person I know who admitted spending 40 hours a week on hers. They have an IT team standing in the wings to re-design this and tweak that. They have a team of writers helping on an off day when the main squeeze is traveling, and the researchers are combing industry rags for all the breaking news so they can make hay about it before anyone else.

I’m a power walker; does that count? Heh, not really, but it serves as a great analogy. My speed is quicker than most; I have an end goal, usually to move the heart rate up and the time down. I am (trying) to keep a consistent schedule (shall we say daily for all intents and purposes), and I’m competing with (myself) to do it better earn something (loss of calories, great legs, a break from Twitter?).

Alas, power blogging has its pitfalls which makes these blog owners just like we stragglers, followers, newbies, and awe-inspired wow-ers:

  • Mark Schaefer who writes Ad Age Power blog 48 has invited a cadre of guest posters to author articles while he holidays in Eastern Europe for two weeks. In doing so, he lamented his failure to manage social media and blogging while aiming for a desperate unplug from it all.
  • Gini Dietrich, who writes the Ad Age Power Blog 39 called Spin Sucks (and coming soon, the perfected Spin Sucks Pro) admitted her lack of inspiration coming up with ideas to write a blog post and wrote a blog post about nothing. (And, damned if I just went to get the link to that and there’s 251 comments — ABOUT NOTHING!)
  • Marcus Sheridan who owns The Sales Lion blog recently had one of the most civil, contentious, well–commented blog posts I’ve ever had the privilege of being part of (with perhaps 368 comments as of today), and he had to manage each and every one of those all alone.
  • Heck, Jayme Soulati (that’s me if you forgot) even wrote a blog post This is a No Mojo Blog. (Oh, yeah, am not a power blogger.)

I leave you to ponder the treasure or empty bucket of power blogging with these final thoughts I’m seeing from just about everyone who’s been alongside me in the last several years:

1. We’re humans who require sleep, a beverage, hugs from our children, and an unplug during holiday.

2. We have real jobs that pay the bills, unless your real job is as a professional blogger and thus you should not be reading this, so skitter away, mein Freund.

3. Passion and inspiration are fleeting when we’re tuckered. Understand that shift, and your readers will be ever more thankful.

4. No one is telling you to post every day; see bullet three.

5. Numbers are metrics, but remember, the quality of comments mean more than the number of tweets from the blog (in fact, I get more RTs on Twitter for posts than I do from the tweet button app or Share This).

What might you offer about power blogging? Is that your goal, or are you standing in the wings watching and whispering, “thank goodness that’s not me.” ? (P.S. I’m trying to heed my own counsel; it’s tough!)

(image: indexofwallpapers.com)

 

 

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Does Your Blog Make Commenters Comfy?

by Jayme Soulati on 05/29/2011 in Blogging 101

I was along for the ride on one of the most contentious (according to comments) blog posts ever, and based on “Popular Posts” tallies in his sidebar the highest-number-of-comments (250) as of this moment (and no signs of stopping).

I’m speaking of Marcus Sheridan who writes The Sales Lion. He owns a swimming pool company and said he turned to social media in the downtick to save his business. Everyone talks about him, and his brand is authentic and popular. I read my first blog post of his via my reader one late night and was so blown away by his writing and content I kept it as “unread.”

So, in earnest, I read his post early Friday morning about Blog World because I had really wanted to go and meet some great folks. Marcus’s post was the first recap I would read; however, it’s turned more into a critique free for all with the show’s organizers, other speakers, other attendees, and even people who “most offended” those in audience during the final keynote.  You can read it all here; it’s amazing.

But, that’s not what this blog post was intended to be about, although it’s a really nice segue.

I was duly impressed with the comfortable feeling I got when I first arrived at Marcus’s blog on Friday and felt compelled to comment and then began to hijack the comments in usual banter with Gini Dietrich. Gini and Marcus assured me it was OK to do so when I said, “oops, apologies if this isn’t cool.”

What that means is a huge welcome mat is open at The Sales Lion. I just went back to check, he has no “Ad Age Power Blogger” badge or other award-winning badges in his sidebar (although, I know if he tried, he’d win something hands down). By welcoming comments from the small and large, unknown and well known, The Sales Lion allows all of us to commune within his community, and that’s what he’s done tremendously well – create a vast community.

The comments rolled in all day long on Friday and were still going strong through the night, on Saturday and today (Sunday). I was overwhelmed and wondered how on earth someone receiving that measure of comments could get any work done? (Marcus, how do you do that? Manage comments without them controlling your time?) Curious, I decided to check in Friday during dinner and see how the comments were tracking.

Lo, the one I opened was TO Gini Dietrich and it was ABOUT how comfortable the woman felt leaving a comment because others were not just “trolling.” (I assume that means bantering?) She felt her thoughts would be sincerely welcome.

And, so, the topic for this post was being written on a napkin in a restaurant and the one comment I decided to open confirmed it was a viable topic. Oh, yeah, and Gini just had to pop in to also confirm we are the same person.

Think about your welcome mat on your blog. What would commenters say about your house? If you need a lesson, head on over to Marcus’s and see the warmth and sincerity with which he invites you in. He doesn’t need any badges in his margin; he’s already an exponential power.

I’ve written about this before, but this level of engagement is so hugely quality that I need to share. It’s Marcus’s grace, sincerity, authenticity, and balance with which he responds to each and every commenter and not just with a brush-off. He engages people and invites them back without asking.

We can all learn just by observing; my take-aways are still in gel form, but the first lesson is right here.

 

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Momaraderie Is Sunday Sweets With Shakirah

by Jayme Soulati on 05/22/2011 in Momaraderie

This Momaraderie feature is the first (besides my mom’s) to share about a woman who doesn’t know she’s being tapped. (I love surprises!) She made such an impression on me in the last 48 hours, and what a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning sharing it with you.

Shakirah Dawud is a mother of a daughter who is two-years-old. We all know what that means; following around the baby, consistent attention and basically doing EVERYTHING for her child. She is also a professional copywriter and book editor, and when you sign on to regularly read her blog at Deliberate Ink, you’ll grasp immediately how she can be an editor…a really good one.

It’s because her writing always knocks it out of the park. ALWAYS. I’ve not had the privilege of working with copywriters (it feels more like an advertising thing), and she’s not fully in the camp of public relations (because she’s sitting just outside the fence) yet I see the possible blend, especially with someone so engaged.

Let me tell you a bit more. I’m learning about her in snips and snaps and this should give you a head start:

** Not sure how I was first introduced to Shakirah, perhaps she just appeared in my stream one day with this terribly long Twitter ID with her full name TaqqiyahShakirah_Dawud, I think. And, then, she shortened it to @ShakirahDawud (yeah) b/c I could remember it better. In my blog comments she was commenting, and I asked her how I ought to address her as there were two first names; she told me Shakirah and that was perfect.

** And, she told me she was shy; and I saw that in comments and could feel her holding back. Now that she’s entirely more comfortable the floodgates have opened and she’s pouring out the content and comments everywhere and engaging her personal brand. It’s marvelous to see.

** Nice segue to the comments; Shakirah is one of the most thoughtful and in-depth commenters I’ve ever had the privilege of having on my blogs. On Friday, I posted a Childhood Obesity and BMI Screening Mandates piece over at The SMB Collective. It was one of the most popular posts ever on that blog (I’m still in test mode trying to figure out what it’s going to be when it grows up), and I thank Shakirah for pushing the conversation. She posed such rich thought which encouraged others to weigh in, too, and keep the stories coming. I will be pulling from comments to do a round two on that topic.

** Around the same day, Shakirah posted a blog at her house about Wet Jeans and Chrysler about her childhood memory of wearing tight, skinny jeans to a water park and getting teased.

I’m so eager to keep learning more; in fact, I’m quite eager to see her lovely face – when do we get an avatar, Lady? Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy getting to know Shakirah as much as I have. Her blog is a wonderfully warm place with equally warm individuals sharing personal anecdotes (how does she do that?). Stop in to find out…again, you can find her over at Deliberate Ink.

 

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